This was written by Iron Knee. Posted on Sunday, February 27, 2011, at 4:07 pm. Filed under Irony. Tagged Taxes. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

6 Comments

PatriotSGT wrote:

The political chickens we have (all parties) elected don’t have the guts to take on the real issues. SS, Medicare, Medicaid, Defense. Everything else is just wrapping paper designed to scare one side then the other. After they tackle the big 4 then they’ll need to raise revenue. Washington
Bu%^sh&@ters! I say we get term limits, then maybe they’ll have the guts to do whats right, instead of being worried about getting re-elected. 🙂

I’ve been to a few third world countries, no thanks.
Read the “teacher” story. I understand, I was recruited by the highest overall rated “no child” school district in Texas, (just north of Houston). Our dept. head told me they achieved their success by a high drop out rate. Who does THAT serve?

Thanks for the link to the teacher story, IK. It’s a depressingly clear narrative of what is wrong with our current systems. I am thankful I earn enough that when my 3 year old starts preschool this year I can send her to a private school where the student/teacher ratio is 10 to 1.

It also shows that when we measure the wrong things and focus on “results” only at the most summary level while ignoring the methods used, we incent the wrong behaviour.

I overuse the term re-engineering a bit but that’s what is needed and I don’t know how we can get the political courage to take on that challenge. I am in Washington right now for the national No Labels meeting and I hope that it can be one of the voices for sanity 🙂

Among the comments to the teacher’s post was reference to a term I was unfamiliar with, “Wal-Schools.” Since the 3rd world supplies our retail markets, its fitting that our education gets dumbed down to that supply level also. Unfortunately its low quality at a high price.

Well, just finished the No Labels naitonal session and I have to say it’s looking positive. There is a very clear and strong focus on building a movement aimed at changing the way politics currently operates (I can’t bring my self to say “works”) by changing behaviour, while NOT taking specific positions on issues.

All in all the organizaiton has a lot of smart, committed people from all wings of the political spectrum that want to see fact based, bi partisan discussions leading to real solutions – a real solution being defined as something that can get a majority in the House, 60 votes in the Senate, the President’s signature, and can be implemented in reality.

I am quite hopeful that this is a positive movement and that it isn’t going to be hijacked by any special interests for the forseeable future. And it’s real – 70,000 members and climbing – so it’s worth a second look.

Regardless of anyone’s specific position on any issue, the majority of Americans (78%) think the current process is broken and the vast majority (94%) think that partisan politics needs “some” or “major” reform. I say it’s easier to steer a car that’s moving, and any group that is trying to provide a counterweight to MoveOn and the Tea Party Nation by rewarding fact-based discussions leading to real solutions deserves my support 🙂